Hi Folks,

I just wanted to send out a quick note about two issues that I would like you to keep your eye on.  Remember that I said that we should treat all news sources as a form of entertainment.  Subsequently, these news sources are looking for ratings and subscribers the way any other entertainment industry do and knowing this we should research anything we see, hear, or read thoroughly.  News in general tends to be sensationalized, swayed, abbreviated, and/or filtered so as to bring in more interest.  With this in mind I want to bring your attention and scrutiny to two important issues that need further study and the proper precautions taken.

The Cambodian Malaria is a disease that has grown resistant to all classic modern medical/pharmacological treatments and is spreading fast.  The hardest hit is Africa with over 600 thousand deaths reported last year, especially children.

The H7N9 bird flu is also quite alarming in that it has a potential to create a world wide pandemic. They have discovered that the avian to human transfer of the disease is much faster than the H5N1 avian flu that erupted from 2004 to 2007.  That being said, what is worrying the World Health Organization is that it has the potential for human to human infection and they are watching the spread of this disease very closely.

I am saying this because we have to consider that we are in a global warming.  In North America, Malaria has pushed further north and I sense that this season it will push even further north.  Please keep digging for the truth and take the proper precautions when traveling.  In Medicine, Tom